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August 21, 2026

Assigning Dedicated Machines Using the ‑L Option

You can use the vdmadmin command with the -L option to assign machines from a dedicated pool to users.

Syntax

vdmadmin -L [-b authentication_arguments] -d desktop -m  machine -u domain\user
vdmadmin -L [-b authentication_arguments] -d desktop [-m machine | -u domain\user] -r

Usage Notes

Horizon 8 assigns machines to users when they first connect to a dedicated desktop pool. Under some circumstances, you might want to preassign machines to users. For example, you might want to prepare their system environments in advance of their initial connection. After a user connects to a remote desktop that Horizon 8 assigns from a dedicated pool, the virtual machine that hosts the desktop remains assigned to the user for the life span of the virtual machine. You can assign a user to a single machine in a dedicated pool.

You can assign a machine to any entitled user. You might want to do this when recovering from the loss of View LDAP data on a Connection Server instance, or when you want to change ownership of a particular machine.

After a user connects to a remote desktop that Horizon 8 assigns from a dedicated pool, that remote desktop remains assigned to the user for the life span of the virtual machine that hosts the desktop. You might want to remove the assignment of a machine to a user who has left the organization, who no longer requires access to the desktop, or who will use a desktop in a different desktop pool. You can also remove assignments for all users who access a desktop pool.

Options

The following table shows the options that you can specify to assign a desktop to a user or to remove an assignment.

Options for Assigning Dedicated Desktops

OptionDescription
-d desktopSpecifies the name of the desktop pool.
-m machineSpecifies the name of the virtual machine that hosts the remote desktop.
-rRemoves an assignment to a specified user, or all assignments to a specified machine.
-u domain\userSpecifies the login name and domain of the user.

Examples

Assign the machine machine2 in the desktop pool dtpool1 to the user Jo in the CORP domain.

vdmadmin -L -d dtpool1 -m machine2 -u CORP\Jo

Remove the assignments for the user Jo in the CORP domain to desktops in the pool dtpool1.

vdmadmin -L -d dtpool1 -u Corp\Jo -r

Remove all user assignments to the machine machine1 in the desktop pool dtpool3.

vdmadmin -L -d dtpool3 -m machine1 -r

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